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Why Eight-Hour Workdays Are Pointless

Whether you like it or not, your eight-hour workday shouldn’t last eight hours. The fact is that different people need different work hours, but everyone can use a few simple tips to increase productivity and happiness, from turning off notifications to dividing your day into 90-minute windows. https://lifehacker.com/why-we-should-rethink-the-eight-hour-workday-515742249

This bizarre optical illusion dance is way more fun than it should be

It’s the folk-rock polka music that really makes it. What’s most impressive about this illusion is how it manages to trick your brain, even after you’ve worked out the whole split-body, black-and-white outfit situation that makes it work. Try as you might, and conscious of the gimmick though you may be, it’s more or less…

A Hologram-Projecting R2-D2 Birthday Cake Makes Us Insanely Jealous

We’ve seen a lot of awesome cake designs over the years, but this is the first time we’ve been genuinely envious over what a six-year-old was served at his birthday party. After all, who wouldn’t want an R2-D2 birthday cake that actually projects holograms like the one Marc Freilich made for his son Alexander? Besides…

Watch Stephen Colbert’s Tear-Jerking Tribute to His Dead Mother

Opening yesternight’s Colbert Report after a week-long hiatus, Stephen Colbert paid a very emotional tribute to her mom, talking about all she meant for him and his siblings. She died last week at the age of 92. You can watch it here. http://gawker.com/watch-stephen-colberts-heartwarming-tearful-tribute-t-514533962

20 Photos of Iconic Buildings and Bridges As They Were Being Built

There’s a great scene in the first season of Mad Men where Don unveils a campaign for Bethlehem Steel. “New York, Chicago, and Detroit—all brought to you by Bethlehem,” reads the copy. The client rejects the pitch, but the sentiment itself was hard to argue with: steel from those small rustbelt towns was feeding the…

Why is NASA studying these concentric stone rings?

These patterns are stromatolites. They can be flat layers, they can be puffy mushroomoids, they can be made of white limestone or they can be made from iron. And they can be clues about life on other planets. Stromatolites are the oldest fossils in existence. They’d have to be, since they’re remnants of the oldest…

WSJ: Facebook Will Announce Ambiguous Vine-Like Video Sharing Today

The WSJ is the latest publication to report unnamed sources claiming that today’s Facebook announcement will be all about video sharing. Now it looks like the service will be separate from Instagram? Or is that an omission? According to “sources with knowledge” Facebook will announce “pieces” of a “Vine-like video service”. The main difference between…

Ask a New York City Movie Location Scout Anything You Want

Did you know there’s an abandoned swimming pool in the basement of the Woolworth Building? Did you know there’s an abandoned Cold War-era missile silo buried under a log cabin in the Adirondacks? Do you have any idea what happened with the filming location of Ghostbusters or Annie Hall? Nope! But Nick Carr, the location…

What do you do when your work becomes obsolete?

The Last Ice Merchant is the story of Baltazar Ushca – a 67-year-old, 5-foot-tall man who has been harvesting glacial ice from Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo for over 50 years with little more than his hands, some hay, and a small pack of donkeys. Ushca lives a life of toil, and for very little pay. That…

Why Microsoft Xbox One’s New Policies Are Actually Bad for Consumers

Caving to the pressure from rabid gamers in the internet, Microsoft decided to let anyone to share and sell physical disc games freely in their next-gen Xbox One. Ironically, that’s terrible news, as Kyle Wagner cleverly explains in Gizmodo. https://kotaku.com/microsoft-is-removing-xbox-one-drm-514390310

This pathetic GIF could be the first message aliens receive from us

As if to further reinforce the stupidity of the recently launched Lone Signal project, this mind-boggingly absurd GIF was just sent on a 17.6 light-year journey to Gliese 526 in hopes that it’ll get picked up by an extraterrestrial civilization. Yes, really — this is how we’re going to say “hello.” https://gizmodo.com/new-project-to-message-aliens-is-both-useless-and-poten-512863567 This GIF, along…

Of Course This Optometrist’s Business Card Doubles As an Eye Test

Here’s a brilliant way to drum up new business if you’re an optometrist. Myung Dong, an eye doctor in Jeju, South Korea, found the perfect way to convince the local elderly population that they could benefit from glasses or other vision treatments: a business card featuring a self-administered eye test. It was an incredibly cheap…

Nvidia’s Shield just got a liiiittle cheaper. Instead of the original $350, it’s now $300 thanks to popular demand. It’ll be officially available on June 27th, if that price drop got you interested.

Check out new videos for Pacific Rim, R.I.P.D., and World War Z!

The very funny Charlie Day explains why he isn’t just comic relief in Pacific Rim. Patricia Clarkson joins the latest dystopian YA novel adaptation. BSG star Katee Sackhoff talks Riddick. Could a character more famous than Green Arrow himself show up in Arrow’s second season? Plus Orphan Black hints. Spoilers right now! Top image from…

Is Your New MacBook Air’s Wi-Fi Crappy?

According to reports from Apple employees and the assorted hordes of the internet, we’re not the only ones having trouble with the Wi-Fi on the new MacBook Air. So, are we just holding it wrong, or have Ives and Co made a little whoopsie? https://gizmodo.com/apple-acknowledges-iphone-4-reception-issues-says-dont-5572279 A couple of thousand disenfranchised Apple customers seem to have…

Let’s Hope All Bots Are as Gentle as This Tofu Handling Robot

Sci-fi movies and TV shows have given us a glimpse of the future where robots will eventually set their sights on eradicating humans. It’s just one possible outcome, though, and as this robot developed by Lands Work demonstrates, our inevitable artificial companions might actually be far gentler than we fear. Designed to carefully and gingerly…

Yahoo has responded to claims that recycled email accounts could pose a security problem, claiming it’s “going to extraordinary lengths” to protect users. Obviously.

How Digg Raced to Make the Google Reader Replacement You’ll Want

With Google Reader about to meet its maker, Digg decided to make the ultimate replacement. That was two months ago—and Wired has the inside track of exactly how the project has come together since then. https://gizmodo.com/google-shut-down-reader-because-it-was-scared-of-more-s-5992232 At the outset, it’s fair to say things didn’t look pretty. Hopping back in time two months, Mat Honan…

Why Congress Must Investigate NSA’s Unconstitutional Spying

In the past couple of weeks, the NSA has, unsurprisingly, responded with a series of secret briefings to Congress that have left the public in the dark and vulnerable to misstatements and word games. Congress has many options at its disposal, but for true accountability any response must start with a special investigative committee. A…

A leaked Samsung user manual seems to suggest that there’s a Galaxy S4 variant on the horizon which will pack the new Snapdragon 800 chip. Speedy.